This book - by the greatest living authority on Martin Luther - provides a new history for our times. In gripping prose, Kaufmann explains how the Reformation spread throughout Europe and then globally, and what its legacy is today. Always he keeps an eye on the Ottoman Empire, central to the story. Kaufmann is a sure guide and knows the world of Reformation popular print inside out. This freshly written book brings sixteenth-century religious ideas to life, so that
the reader grasps just why salvation and damnation mattered so much, and what the Reformation means in a united Germany now. The book is packed with unforgettable detail and original insight.
Thomas Kaufmann is Professor of Church History at the University of Gõttingen, President of the Society for Reformation History, and a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. He is the author of numerous books on Reformation history, including an acclaimed biography of Martin Luther.